After spending two of Michael’s vacation days at home, we packed up and headed east to visit both sides of our extended family.
Funny (or maybe not) side-story before we even left:
We timed our departure right at nap time, with the hope that our two kiddos would sleep for most of the ride. The car was all loaded up, lunches were stowed in the front seat to be eaten on the way, and we were ready to buckle the kids into their car seats when we realized…
Kaya’s beloved Kitty was missing.
If you don’t know, Kitty goes everywhere, and a day (let alone a week) without him would be pure agony for everyone involved.
We asked Kaya if she packed him in a suitcase… and she told us she hadn’t. We started searching frantically through the house… opening everything that can be opened and pulling various items from their places. We couldn’t find him, and Kaya was sobbing. My heart was breaking for my little girl.
Michael searched the inside of our suitcases in the car. No Kitty. He even went to the dumpster, found the trash we had taken out earlier, and searched it. Still no Kitty. We were starting to lose some hope, and gave her the new “backup” Kitty to try to calm her down.
Michael went out to the car to look (for a 3rd time, I think), and this time, Kaya immediately climbed onto one of the suitcases… Michael looked in one of the front pockets (which looked waaay too small to have Kitty in it), and finally, there he was. Apparently, she packed him, forgot she did it, and we had no idea it even happened.
So then we took two Kitties on our trip, but everyone was happy.
We made it safely to my parents’ house by evening. Our plan to get them to nap in the car mostly failed, so we still had two sleepy girls the next day.
We spent a lot of time just lounging around and relaxing. 
Grandma had some new bubbles for Kaya to play with! We enjoyed sitting out on the swing and just soaking in the warmth of these late summer days.
This was also Kaya’s first time having extended contact with a dog since the bite incident, and for the most part, she did great. 
My parents’ dog, Socks, is really sweet, but also very loud, so she was afraid when he would bark a lot. She asked about him whenever she couldn’t see what he was doing, and laughed when he would give us all kisses. I am still so proud of my girl for being so brave. 
Grandma and Kaya took several walks around the yard. 
We had a lot of really great food on our trip- especially for breakfast, like these muffins. Mmmm.
My mom made pancakes and bacon another day. Even Kaelyn dug right in!
We also played some classic old games with my dad, like “Thin Ice” and “Cootie”, but I forgot to take a picture of those. Friday night, we packed up (again) and headed down to my inlaws’, but this post is already way too long, so I’ll save that for another day. 🙂